Pressley Also Calls Out Harmful Stereotypes Pushed by GOP About Who Relies on Federal Programs like ACA, SNAP, and Medicaid 

“I work alongside people who speak with a mouthful of scriptures but seem to carry a heart full of hate, and would have you believe that there is a deficit of resource, when in fact, there’s just a deficit of empathy.”

Video (YouTube)

WASHINGTON – Today in a House Steering and Policy Committee hearing, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) slammed Republicans for harming families across America by shutting down the government, unlawfully cutting food assistance, and jacking up healthcare costs. Congresswoman Pressley also questioned witnesses about the harmful, misleading stereotypes pushed by Republicans about who relies on federal programs like the Affordable Care Act, SNAP, and Medicaid.

The hearing comes as the Republican-manufactured government shutdown enters its record 37^th day.

A full transcript of her testimony and exchange with witnesses is available below, and the full video is available here.

Transcript: Pressley Slams Republicans for Stealing Food and Healthcare from Families During GOP Shutdown, Pushing Harmful Stereotypes
House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee
November 6, 2025

REP. PRESSLEY: I work alongside people who speak with a mouthful of scriptures but seem to carry a heart full of hate, and would have you believe that there is a deficit of resource, when in fact, there’s just a deficit of empathy. 

They perpetuate stereotypes of struggle when we all know that struggle does not discriminate. It finds all of us. 

We’re all just one disruptive life event away. Losing a spouse, losing a child, losing a job, having an illness. One disruptive life of away.

Poverty and struggle are not moral failings. They are not character flaws. 

The flaws are that we have systems that are broken and lawmakers that do not see themselves in their neighbors. They don’t see the humanity of their neighbors. 

So I thank you all so much for being here. I look forward to a day where you do not have to relive the hardest moments of your life in order to compel action from your government.

Coretta Scott King says “starving a child is violence. Contempt for the working man and woman is violence.”  

This is violence. It’s policy violence. It’s policy negligence. 

This is not harm that is naturally occurring. It is man made, manufactured. 

So I thank you all for being here, for turning your pain into purpose, and we will certainly amplify your stories in the hopes that our colleagues will have an epiphany having heard about your lived experiences, because I just don’t think that they get it. 

I don’t think they know what they’re doing, and if they do, they must be more concerned with keeping a job than doing the one they were sent here to do for the people and communities that entrusted them. 

I just was wondering if any of you would be willing to speak to the stereotypes that continue to be perpetuated about who relies on SNAP, who are the Medicaid recipients who benefits from the subsidies of the Affordable Care Act, if any of you would just be willing to speak to that and just head on to tackle these stereotypes.

LISA BOONE BOGACKI: I feel like I can speak to the stereotypes for who relies on the Affordable Care Act subsidies. 

I’m a person who’s been a rule-follower my whole life. I was that good girl who just did everything the way I was supposed to do it. And as you, as you said, it takes one event.

One event that that took away more than half of our family income, and left me with these three little children. And we have, we have lived through dealing with people, thankfully, not my friends and families, but my young son in middle school said he had to point out to his friend that said “people on Obamacare were just lazy and didn’t want to didn’t want to work.” 

And that friend of my 10-year-old son was talking about my son and didn’t know it. 

So it’s not—the stereotypes are not correct. They, I am, as Representative Dean said, I am not alone. I am not special. There are so many people who are doing everything the way it’s supposed to be done, and yet still need—I’ve needed multiple of these social safety nets. My kids got the Social Security survivors benefits, and we needed, you know, the Affordable Care Act help. And I’m a professional. I, you know, I don’t flip burgers, that term they like to always say. But it’s still not enough.

Our society is not set up for a solo parent. It’s just not. And I think it’s not wrong to say that government should look more into to those situations, because there are so many of us.

REP. PRESSLEY: I’m very grateful for your candor, and again, I’m so sorry that you have to relive the hardest times in your life to compel action from the government to meet your most basic needs, which, in my opinion, are a human right. 

Food is a human right. Food is not just nourishment. It is health, it is medicine, it is dignity, it’s readiness to learn, it’s readiness to work. 

Healthcare is not a nice to have. It’s a must have. 

So we’re already over time, so I will defer to the chair to get us back on schedule. But thank you very much.

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